It’s no secret that Australian TV networks love to import celebrities from America or the UK to host or judge our reality talent shows. We’ve had Nicole Scherzinger on Australia’s Got Talent, the likes of Seal and Kelly Rowland on The Voice Australia and Channel 7 is no exception as they’ve given a seat to Meghan Trainor on this year’s Australian Idol judging panel.
If you (somehow) haven’t heard of Trainor, she is a Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter that has arguably created some of the catchiest body positivity anthems of the last 10 years. She says in press materials that she always created music that she “needed to hear but wasn’t yet hearing on the radio”.
More recently she has risen to TikTok stardom following the release of her song, “Made You Look” in 2022. The trending sound amassing 3.9 million posts on TikTok and 132 billion streams globally. She even admitted to knowing a few of the auditioning contestants from TT and expressed her excitement to Erica Padilla upon recognising the Aussie-Filipina creator.
“You got views ma’am!” Trainor shouted excitedly when seeing Padilla step through the doors at Idol’s Melbourne auditions.
The Idol judge can be incredibly sweet and kind even when passing criticisms — serving them with a disarming grin and her calming tone of voice. Trainor is gentle and can often be observed feeling bad for contestants when they share their life experiences and sob stories. I don’t know about you, but there’s just something about that level of niceties that makes me slightly uneasy.
However, we cannot deny that Trainor’s judgement, when it comes to star-making, is impeccable as she herself has taken home a Grammy for Best New Artist, eight multi-platinum singles, two platinum albums, and sold-out 3 world tours.
Her advice to artists of any level is, “Sometimes aspiring artists can focus too
much on striving to be like another artist. The most important thing any artist can do is be true to themselves and focus on what is unique about them.”
Tune into Australian Idol on Channel 7 and 7plus this Monday, January 13 to see how Trainor gives “constructive feedback smothered in kindness”.
Related:Â Meet ‘Australian Idol’ 2023 Judge Kyle Sandilands
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